Ant Pest Control For your Home
Ant pest control is necessary to keep the unwelcome guests at bay. Invading, uninvited, unwelcome, and unrelenting, they arrive without warning. They can, however, be easily dealt with or, better yet, avoided altogether.
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The two types most likely to appear during the warmer months are house ants and carpenter ants. Ants come indoors searching for alternative food sources after development, such as building a new home, which destroys their natural habitat.
The Risks Associated With Ants
Food Contamination
Ants may carry and transmit bacterial and fungal organisms that pose a severe health risk to you and your family and can spread serious diseases.[1]
Property Damage
Carpenter ants and acrobat ants construct their homes in wet or rotting wood. Carpenter ants prefer residences with moisture problems as their primary prey.
Bite And Sting Hazards
A person severely allergic to wasp and bee stings may also be susceptible to ant stings. Ants can bite when they feel threatened.
Tips For Pest Control For Ants
Keep An Eye Out For The Hotspots
It is no surprise that ants tend to congregate in kitchens. After all, kitchens provide food and water, necessities for ants and other pests to survive. Ants gather in and around air conditioning and heating equipment within walls, bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, basements, and other enclosed spaces.
Get Rid Of Water Sources
If you reduce moisture and standing water around your house, you can drastically reduce ant numbers in your home. To act as a resource conduit, house and carpenter ants will occasionally establish satellite colonies within a house. And both species favor wet environments. Therefore, showers, windows, and moist areas in the basement need special attention.
Where can you get water-damaged wood? A deck. These buildings will decay from neglect and act as a welcome mat for carpenter ants. Maintaining a well-maintained deck is the most effective way to get rid of ants here.[2]
Carpenter ants will only dig through wood that has previously sustained water damage, as opposed to termites, which may consume both fresh and old wood.
Repair any leaks and replace any water-damaged components as soon as possible. Regularly check beneath sinks for moisture accumulation. Use a dehumidifier to dry damp basements, crawl spaces, or attics. Water should flow away from the home’s foundation through downspouts and gutters.
Take Away All Food Sources
Keeping your kitchen clean will help deter ants from entering your home. To eliminate crumbs and spill residue, periodically wipe off counters and sweep floors. Ants consume protein, sugar, and pretty much everything else they can discover. An ant colony will typically send out a few ants to scout. They will bring back a sample of any food they locate to the colony, and hundreds will follow them back into the house.
Keep food in tightly closed, pest-proof containers, and ripe fruit should be refrigerated. Also, clean sticky containers containing honey, syrup, soda, or other sweets. Finally, cover trashcans with a lid and routinely dispose of rubbish.
Place Ant Baits
Ant baits are an efficient way to eliminate an ant infestation. Put them out anywhere you find ants and prepare for a celebration. Try a few different baits until you find one appealing to this colony.
When scouts take the sweet, sugary bait syrup back to the colony, it kills larvae and aids in population control, and eliminates any ants who consume it.
Be careful when placing ant baits in containers if you have pets.
Watch Over Your Pets
Pets like cats, dogs, and others may unintentionally let ants into your house. Animal food and water bowls attract pests, so keep them clean and quickly mop up any spills.[3] Choose to store dry pet food in a sealed plastic container instead of the paper bags they frequently come in. Ants and other pests can easily open the latter. Check the cat and dog doors to ensure no pests can pass through. Keep in mind that ants can squeeze through even the tiniest gaps.
Cover Up Or Remove Access Points
Examine your house’s exterior for locations of accessible entry. Prune back trees and bushes from the house, so their branches do not act as ant highways inside. Use silicone caulk to fill up any gaps and cracks on the house’s exterior, paying close attention to any openings for utility pipes.
Get Help
Fighting ants can be difficult without the right training and equipment. What’s worse is that if an infestation is not adequately handled, it may spread. Some ant species, like carpenter ants, can seriously harm your home, while others, like fire ants, can endanger the health of your family. Food can become contaminated by species that are regarded as pests of annoyance, such as pungent house ants.
What A Pest Control Ants Service Would Do
Investigate
Their inspection will cover both the inside and outside of your home for existing or potential insect issues.
Protect
They will use the safest techniques and the best products and ensure that your structure is treated all around by using the best techniques and products. It is also essential to remove any spiderwebs or wasp nests that are easily accessible and that are behind walls or windows.
Fortify
A sealant will be applied to the gaps and crevices by caulking, plugging, and sealing them in order to prevent insects from entering.
Keep Vigil
Besides treating the interior of your home, they will also install pest monitors in places like your house’s kitchen, bathroom, utility room, and garage. There will also be a detailed inspection of your home’s interior.
Report
There is never a need to worry when you hire a pest control company, as they always provide you with a detailed report on their services and suggestions on how to keep the house pest-free.
Take Action
They are responsible for staying in touch with the client between their scheduled visits and catering to any urgent requirements that may arise.
Special Feature: Carpenter Ant Pest Control
How Do Carpenter Ants Behave?
As a result of their damage to wood, carpenter ants earned the nickname “carpenter ants.” In contrast to termites, carpenter ants make routes for their colonies by chewing the wood and expelling it. Carpenter ants are present when you notice sporadic debris clusters resembling wood shavings.
The size of a carpenter ant distinguishes it from other species. They measure between 1/2″ and 5/8″.[4] Additionally, most carpenter ants are red-black, all-red, all-black, or all-brown.
How Do They Penetrate A House?
If there is a moisture problem in any area of your home, carpenter ants will be drawn to the regions since they enjoy damp and/or rotting wood. Carpenter ants don’t always get access to your house by gnawing through the wood. They can enter your house through any crack or small entrance, even if it is pretty high.
Carpenter ants prefer to build their houses indoors close to water sources. They like to congregate in locations around air conditioners, dishwashers, sinks, and bathtubs.
Pest Control For Carpenter Ants
It’s more complex than swatting any ant you see. Scout ants roam about your house looking for the finest areas to feed and hang out, just like all ant colonies do. Once they’ve found a decent food supply, their friends (the “workers”) continue on the trail and construct a nest close by in your wall. Asides from the advice offered earlier, take the following steps:
- Leave no trace of scent
Carpenter ants use pheromone trails to navigate and locate food sources. You’ve ruined this map of your home by cleaning the areas where ants have been. With the help of a cotton ball and aromatic oil, you can remove these traces from surfaces. Examples are tea tree, lemon, orange, and cedarwood. Alternately, prepare a spray bottle with a mixture of dish soap and water. (After you’ve located their nest, you can also use this to exterminate ants.) You could also use white vinegar and water in a 50/50 solution.
- Take the nest down.
You must enter the wall to destroy the nest once you’ve located it. Drill 1/8″ holes every six inches in the area where you think the nest may be. Afterward, apply boric acid through the holes with a bulb duster. (The boric acid will kill the ants.) You might need to repeat treatments to eliminate the nest.
Is There A Permanent Way To Get Rid Of Ants?
No, ant pest control can’t exterminate them for good. They will return from nearby properties, and you will have to fight them again. The good news is that you may begin baiting your entire yard early in the spring. This method will eliminate a large number of ants that would have been missed since ants grab these baits and carry them back to their colonies. Avoid using ant bait when the temperature is below 50 degrees.
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Reference
[1] Food Borne Disease Organisms “Do Ants Carry Disease?” Orkin LLC, 2022
[2] Carpenter Ants Get Inside “How To Get Rid Of Carpenter Ants Before The Damage Is Done” Hearst Magazine Media, Inc., 2022
[3] Spilled food “13 Things in Your House That Are Attracting Pests Right Now” Trusted Media Brands, Inc. 2018
[4] Carpenter Ants “A Guide to Identifying Common Types of Ant Species” National Pest Management Association, 2022
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